service to our country. it's about our country. it's a principle to be with all of you at this ribbon kci terminal you it's a historic buckling building and to celebrate the return to work and civic life. in the midst of the great depression it was built as it was said in the middle 30s the boo assistant district attorney structure was not only a reminder of grand demur of pun certify but to put people back to work. some of the bleak it mentioned in the historic we would billed you beautiful things and keep our this side of the aisle over tomorrow. over the years this place has h witnessed compassion and a accomplishment and to close in

the second world war ii you, you know, 50 nations came together to find the united nations. at the as accident aid epidemic ladies and gentlemen of the jury, people came together here to make sure the crisis would not be go forward holding a decade-long vigil in the names millions with hiv and aids. this is the place where the struggles and poster of many of our fellow americans lived through this. i'm excited to be here not because of the un (laughter) but it's since the great depression this historic

building stood empty. once again in dark and uncertain times this nation invited in our times and it's - a massive commitment by president obama to put people back to work and reclaim our future. the recovery act modernized this structure providing seismic ubtdz u upgrades and a having more focus sustainable designs to meet the pat numb design. and soon nearly after 6 empty years eyed nations will bring federal workers in the

mid-market area and to ignite all the commitment. with the recovery act and the partnership with the federal government and the local leaders mayor ed lee is leading the way for prosperity. today, the recovery is urban finished and incomplete we're still putting people back to work and to strengthen our middle class the backbone of our democracy. we have to make decisions about how to allocate resources that just don't build a structure and create jobs that way or a place to work and create jobs that way but to grow the economy in the surrounding area. that is what it makes it a model

to the nation and that's what san francisco is also ready and able to do. as we bring life into the building this is renovated in the great recession and now ready for another service hopefully it is something we'll be calling the great come back of our economy. i think mayor ed lee and everyone here for our leadership all your leadership because it's more than a building it's more than a workplace or a you mean it's to growth and regional it's the link from the past a great past as the un plaza to the future and i couldn't be happier to be here with you to celebrate

that. so thank you very much all very much. thank you so much congresswoman your leadership in the house that passed the recovery act not only helped to create and save millions of jobs but it is what made this project possible so thank you. tiger lee is the director for the administration services he's served a vital role to build a responsible government for the american people. he's been recognized and as our that administrator he's leading us to greater innovation as we report to the american taxpayers.

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome him (clapping.) thank you very much ruth >> thank you leader nancy pelosi. i think your remarks talk about what this symbolize. it symbolize the history of the united states. it's from our fantastic mayor ed lee and the fact that this building represents a significant partnership between the federal government and the city to yield on incredible result. what can happen in washington as from the recovery investment act. making investment that you the american people have paid for we can return or return the productivity to utilities.

that has the other impact of being in partnership with the city to create economic opportunities within a community such as this combined with the courthouse and the amazing new federal office building we have the gun to contributed in a way that defines the history positive history of this part of the community. it also represents a partnership too the general administration and the people we have the pleasure inform to work with like the architect and the artists who have made in beautiful. i can't go much further without thanking thanking a couple of tsa employees. this manager loves this building she's showed me some of the

incredible features. she's been assisted oh, (clapping) but we need to give applause to the contract officer. (clapping.) and what an honor to move into this building and to demonstrate evidence in order to have strong partnership you need to have strong collaboration when you have a chance to walk around the building you'll see we created open spaces for people to collaborate and, breakdown the hierarch so we can recognize the innovation that mayor ed lee and this incredible community has

demonstrated. i also learned by walking around the building this symbolize some ways of understanding our past and a future. here on the overview of veterans day titus it make sense toy vitality and open this building. i have an opportunity to look at the history a retired admiral gave me the history. hey i didn't know we have another oral office now i do (laughter) but after helping us to protect our country and freedom across

the world what a great opportunity to do the work we do in a building that has provided history. and we try to contribute to a better history by building more buildings to deliver the important mission to maximize the productively and breaking down barriers and walls to help people work together and deliver the services that the american people deserve. it's a fantastic day. i'm excited we're here to kick this off. thank you very much (clapping.) things dan we really appreciate you having us here to celebrate the fantastic headquarters. mayor ed lee was scorn in as the

23rd mayor. he's championed balancing the budget to keep san francisco save and solvent and driving economic innovation. please welcome mayor ed lee (clapping.) thank you ruth >> and thank you nancy pelosi it is wonderful to be here on the ribbon cutting day. thank you for this. i is enjoy g s a it's like my agency you know my history the university that u purchaser and the city administrator you know i love g s a and to hear pittsburgh it's role it refers to our clients as customers.

i went through those years trying to recreate those agencies given the opportunity and the high privilege of re13wi7b9 government and making us not only relevant but at the value for everything we must accomplish. i will add to the appreciation of president obama and his stimulus packet. i was here years ago i broke this ground with the architect and we were happy to before a break ground with leader pelosi and we looked at across market street and we saw market street as thirty percent vacancy rate a darkness to it people hurried

and look what's happening 3 years later. i'll also reference this is one of our stimulus lettuce projects that's the purpose of that act. we want to demonstrate when you give us a little bit of stimulus we take it all the way in san francisco (laughter) this is so appropriate to have the architect and the artists with us. part of the magic that leader pelosi is referring to say happening with the people that make magic with the artists and the architect. we respect a building things like. i want to see the curved doorway the one i saw and the beautiful office up there. it can only be matched by

another rival office across the center (laughter) and take the history of this building the respect and what it means whether it's a coast guard or in the correspondents of the g s a and the other agency that will interact and all the people on behalf of the public i want to congratulate you and to let you know that you're also historically on the united nations first it's be packed our country with the rest of the world. 24 is history and to them showcase this building respectfully and to see the plaza this g s a building compliment the work we're doing

with center market street and right now 3 years later after the groundbreaking we have 15 companies to relocate here we have 5 thousand residential unit being built in the 3 block radius and a 26 percent of them are going to be affordable. we want to create opportunity to work and live in the city to be creative and to be include in the economic opportunities here. so i'm working with anyone else technology companies but companies that decided to move into mid-market even without the innovative of a tax exemption and 3 of the company's said

we're coming because of the talent here in the city. i know they're to be matched with the talent of the people in g s a. we've wanted to work outside of our bureaucracies. this is the new government we're producing here locally and we want to match that we have great partner like our libraries and museums and we're going to compliment that. we can only do that to embrace the opportunity not only to make mistakes but better sufficiency and involve more people and housing and economic opportunity. this is what market street isal

about it's our main corridor in san francisco. and that's why for so many years even before the companies technology came to be there were those artists from a.c.t., from the theatres, from the costume shop and their great arts foundation burning man they were trying to get some life 90 in the story front and with that risk-taking came some attraction but it's symbolic with the public-private partnership we help them and they us. my job and i know nancy pelosi has done it i'm following here

lead to sustain that success to open up those opportunities. this building will compliment what we're doing and it's going to be sustained. we've got neighborhood investments and ambassadors that are hired from people who live in the district to compliments the workforce. it's now, one of the great streets market street. so i congratulate the g s a you're the new caretakers but those will be our folks to recreate all the pathway for those to visit and to recognize that san francisco proudly is an international city one that is

proud to take every stimulus opportunity and to establish and a sustain it and grow it right now like we're doing. congratulations and thank you very much for being here (clapping.) thank you mayor ed lee we're pleased to have you here to celebrate this signify center. this project was about thinking outside of the box and transitioning it. our next speaker michelle cracking i think is the principle and has focused on complex institutional and mixed use projects. please welcome ms. mccrack i think

(clapping.) so it's so amazing to be at the end of this project. i always think about the start and the finish and i love them both i love the beginning that the adrenaline rush that starts at the beginning of every project but love the final movement that is filled with the joy. i can still remember when we had our first meeting in august of 2009. we were behind schedule the day we started. we knew we had to move quickly to sustain the future possibility this future workplace we never doubted we could pull this off. during the initial design phase

we hit our mark and wow. ed center. we thought our efforts were simply awesome. we identified the $40 million flaw (laughter) and at that first meeting among the design team g s a it was clearly in my mind we were halfway through this high wire act and it felt like we dropped our pole. i always remember that moment it was the rebeginning moment. we had the simplicity and the clarity that is still stavrl to me. we literally in the course of three weeks mreld reimagined

what we were doing and we moved from the chaos to clarity to achieve this design kleenex. deceptively simple our corridor exists because of mark and glen and because of jim and because of susie and the japanese gentlemen and because of every outdoors member of our design team and because of the partnership we are forged that day among our design team and others. i remember that day when we represented for the sdpept approval i remember that day when we met again and again and

again to get approval. i believe we needed the system inspected. we had our challenges i never doubted we would succeed. so i'm very grateful i have the opportunity to work with this team and to be part of such a lovely project. i hope all who experience it will feel as much pride as we who created it. thank you (clapping.) thank you michelle we appreciate hearing before your experience. our final speaker is the visibley artist heats completed more than 50 sculptures.

while sought after for creating nuisance sculptures he maintenance small-scale skurlz please well, mr. cliff >> thank you and thank you congresswoman pelosi and mayor ed lee for your comments. this building and project represents many things i want to talk about the roll of art in the contemporary society. within their design convalescence program. this court yard was done within

the program. this program offered the opportunity to work with architect and engineers and significant collaborations that integrate art into the general mifgsdz public buildings. during this collaboration i had the pleasure to work with jennifer and ken barker in washington and don davis. as well as others from the construction site. and we also had an excellent contractor. that my most significant professional collaboration in the project was with two people don doug last from the fine arts program and cliff low. cliff lows sensitive were

structural for me to create the landscape ribbons. don douglas demanded the best quality. the sculptor in this court yard called ribbons is the heart and soul of the building. it's meant to adapt to the moments like this. it can be a place of respite. the sculptor responses to the hierarch of the skrurlt with the ribbons. this major emphasis on the horizon is to compliment the architecture and it is perfect to the historic use.

from under no circumstances ribbons the sculptors that you see to the side rise and fall and create pathways of decomposed granite that anchor the space. there's actually an interesting story about the fountains. when arthur brown completed the designs in 1932 the court yard was never completed because of guess what, budget adversaries (laughter) so it's good to know we're not alone in our contemporary conditions. but i was able to get ahold of the original plans and they showed those like wedding cakes had had or that are different so

i replaced those with the cubes and i was able to in that way like the court yard itself really complete the historical nature of the building and bring it into its contemporary use. as part of this visual vocabulary those fountains and benches you seeing see rising and twisting from the ground are digitally cast into concrete. the concrete is an 80 percent recycled material which is in con formulations with the plat form of qualifications of the architecture by hk s. the decomposed granite allows water to pass through.

sculpture is meant to be skrurlt it is also accommodating the lives of people who are going to work in this facility and use it. i think this this sense it's what the art and architecture program intended for its platform for architecture. john dewey once said that long. >> art it the beauty parlor of civilization neither art of civilization are secure. it's a recognize that the federal government believed that art should and can enrich our lives. this project was taken out of the beauty parlor and put here

ugly or usable and behalf. they've recognized the building art and it's through those those types of collaborations that are become into the arts collaboration. i hope this continues to grow our infrastructure. i take it my dreamy know from experience if we can do it with the courtyard we can do it with infrastructure like water and bridges can be built and reflect the best qualifies of american democracy. nancy pelosi said we should keep on building thanks or things that inspire and endure. thank yo